I stopped after season two of clone wars. After all the comments here about it getting darker/better I picked it back up. Season 5 was hands down the best. Honestly, many episodes through season 4 became background noise for me. It all turned around in season 5.

And then there was...

...the moment.

You'll know it when it happens.

"You, have become, a RIVAL!"

Season 5, Episode 16. The Lawless.

**** I'm going to go watch that scene again. As much as I feel seasons 1 - 3 wasted my time, that scene made it all worthwhile. Just ****ing epic.

Spoiler!

Did anyone else find the voice acting change over from Ian Abercrombie annoying? I like Tim Curry, but Abercrombie just sold me on the character and Curry, while good, just seem to disturb the flow. RIP Abercrombie.

Oh, and long live The Kurgan!

It was good. I still think the other Clone Wars is better, but this series is pretty awesome.

I liked a few of the storylines in season 3 and 4: the Father and the Children, the witches and birth of Savage...

A long time ago on a film set far, far away, two directors made a friendly bet about a small space-fantasy film called "Star Wars."

Steven Spielberg would go on to win the bet and take millions of dollars from George Lucas over time.

Here's how the out-of-this-world wager came to be.

The Troubles Of "The Star Wars"

In the mid-1970s, science-fiction films weren't very popular.

1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" led the way for the genre but made just $56 million at the box office. So when a young director named George Lucas was trying to sell a script called "The Star Wars," based on "Flash Gordon" space serials, not many studios were eager to make it.

It wasn't until Lucas took his script to 20th Century Fox that the film finally received backing — but even then it was more because of the success of Lucas' previous film, "American Graffiti."

The challenges didn't stop there. A delayed, over-budget production caused the troubled director to visit a friend shooting his own sci-fi film in Mobile, Ala.

That friend was Steven Spielberg and the film was his 1977 classic, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

The Bet

According to an interview with Spielberg for Turner Classics Movies, Lucas came to the set of "Close Encounters" out of sorts after problems with his passion project. Needing to recharge, Lucas spent a couple of days on set.

george lucas obi wan star wars
@TheWookieRoars/Twitter

Troubles with the production caused Lucas to believe that "Star Wars" was going to completely bomb.

"George came back from 'Star Wars' a nervous wreck," Spielberg said. "He didn’t feel 'Star Wars' came up to the vision he initially had. He felt he had just made this little kids' movie."

After a few days, Lucas realized something else: Spielberg's "Close Encounters" was going to be so much more successful than "Star Wars." So much more that he felt like making a bet with Spielberg.

Spielberg would later say:

"He said, 'Oh my God, your movie is going to be so much more successful than 'Star Wars'! This is gonna be the biggest hit of all time. I can't believe this set. I can't believe what you're getting, and oh my goodness.' He said, 'All right, I'll tell you what. I'll trade some points with you. You want to trade some points? I'll give you 2.5 percent of 'Star Wars' if you give me 2.5 percent of 'Close Encounters.' So I said, 'Sure, I'll gamble with that. Great.'"

"Close Encounters" would indeed be a hit, making $303 million at the box office. However, "Star Wars" would go on to become one of the biggest box-office hits of all time.

A Financial Empire

According to Spielberg, Lucas sends him money from the bet to this very day.

Spielberg's gamble paid off. Big time.

Released May 25, 1977, on a budget of $11 million, "Star Wars" — later retitled "Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope" — went on to make $460 million in the U.S. alone.

Steven Spielberg, George Lucas
Jason Kempin / Getty Images
Adjusted for inflation, the film has made $1.48 billion at the box office, making it the second-biggest box-office hit of all time — only behind "Gone With The Wind."

By our calculations, this means Spielberg's 2.5 percent could have made him nearly $40 million.

"'Close Encounters' was just a meager success story. 'Star Wars' was a phenomenon," Spielberg said a few years ago. "Of course I was the happy beneficiary of a couple of net points from that movie, which I am still seeing money on today."

Sequels "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" would also go on to be great successes leading to prequels, rereleases, and merchandising, making the "Star Wars" franchise one of the biggest in Hollywood, reportedly worth $30 billion and growing.

1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" led the way for the genre but made just $56 million at the box office.

I read this article the other day and passed over that part without really thinking about it, but $56 million is a lot for 1968. According to this inflation calculator, that's about $377 million in 2014 dollars.

It was good. I still think the other Clone Wars is better, but this series is pretty awesome.

I liked a few of the storylines in season 3 and 4: the Father and the Children, the witches and birth of Savage...

Haven't seen the other version yet, hope to watch this weekend.

4 was definitely a set up season for 5 (IMO). The witches were a good backstory, but I hated the father/children episodes. Was like the introduction of midichlorhoweverthe****youspellthems. Way too ethereal to actually answer any questions about force/balance/anakin.

Wait a minute. Hmmm.

Spoiler!

If you take the context that Anakin is meant to replace the father, and there are now two dead children that could be replaced by Luke/Leia and that this family represents a manifestation of the force across the universe then one of them has to turn evil. Very evil.

Does this mean that Luke will become a demonic badass in ep. 7?

If so, then the father/children episodes were unbelievably awesome. If not? Yeah, throw away episodes for me.